How-to manuals listed the flowers, their meanings, and rules for their presentation. A rose bud presented upright indicated "I hope, but I fear." If returned stripped of its leaves, the bud meant "There is everything to fear," but stripped of its thorns, it promised "There is everything to hope."


As even the most tongue-tied suitors have learned, eloquence comes easier when sentiments are expressed with love tokens. No one can know how many hearts have been won with such courtship gifts, but from Colonial times, Americans have been among those willing to give the technique a try.

Their choices have ranged from the sentimental to the witty and the wildly original. One pragmatic 18th century gent presented only useful gifts such as shoe buckles, raisins and almonds, and even writing paper and sealing wax, in hopes perhaps, of a letter in return. But other sorts of tokens became customary offerings, much the way that red roses are today.

One of the most enduring gestures was to exchange miniature portraits that could be worn around the neck or kept in a pocket. Often a lock of hair was hidden on the back, though by the
mid-1800's women wore brooches that featured their intended's hair plaited into an elaborate love knot.

Less costly, though no less valued were the hand-painted love knots, inscribed with verses, that appeared on notes and valentines. Other suitors folded and cut paper, snowflake style, into lacy pictures and decorated them with hearts and flowers. And school children, particularly, were fond of making "puzzle purses", pieces of paper that were decorated on both sides and then folded to form a sort of envelope. If the folds were undone in the correct sequence, the successive lines of a verse were revealed and a little picture found in the center.

But it was homesick sailors who created some of the most personal love tokens, scrimshaw trinkets from whalebone and ivory, then engraved them with symbols of love. But those who could not carve might still bring home a gift: they needed only to stop at Barbados and buy one of the handmade seashell mosaics that came to be known as sailor's valentines.


Flirting is the act of making a
man feel pleased with himself.
Helen Rowland

Yeah I flirt, I'm not blind and I'm not dead!
Dolly Parton


Flirtini Cocktails

1/2 ounces Stolichnaya Razberi Vodka
1/2 oz. Cointreau
Splash each of
lime juice
pineapple juice
cranberry juice
A few raspberries
Brut Champagne
sprig of mint
Muddle raspberries in the bottom of
a cocktail glass. Shake the first
five ingredients & strain into glass.
Top with Brut Champagne. Garnish with
a sprig of mint.

Flirting is the act of making a
man feel pleased with himself.
Helen Rowland